Cops: Mass. bargain hunter took home TV, left tot

Friday, November 23, 2012

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — Police say a Massachusetts man left his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son in a car while he went shopping for Black Friday bargains, then went home with his new 51-inch flat screen television and left the toddler behind.

Police, alerted by store security, found the boy asleep in the vehicle in a Kmart parking lot at about 1:30 a.m. Friday.

They forced their way into the car and took the boy to the hospital as a precaution.

Meanwhile, they tracked the man to his Springfield home.

He told police he lost the boy while shopping, panicked and called someone else for a ride. The boy’s mother was working.

The 34-year-old man was not arrested and not immediately charged, but police say they expect to charge him with reckless endangerment to a child.